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Tuesday, 11 November 2008

WHEELS, as you will probably know by now, are one of my favouritest of favourite things - Especially when attached to things they are not usually meant to carry along, like people, musical instruments, artifacts and best of all, houses :) Whenever I come across another artist who puts wheels in their work, my heart does a little leap of comradeship.Our own wheeled home is growing, growing, and we are at present looking for a set of seven 20 inch wheels for it, which will be easier to find tyres for on our travels.

I thought it time to show you some treasures amongst the work of other artists I have tripped over on web wanderings recently. From time to time I like to show you works that have made me smile and inspired and gladdened me instead of joining in with the blog award thingamyjigs that get passed around these parts. Over the last months Moonbindery,Qi Papers,Dogberry Hill,Snapper & The Griffin,Krisztina Maros,Amy Short,The House of Edward,Lost Stones,Ink Haven,Mille Fiori,Moonroot,Bimbimbie, &Gypsy Root have all been so kind as to pass me awards and tags, and for their appreciation and lovely words I thank them heartily. Apologies if anyone is left out in the cold there.. my brain is still all a-scramble. I have also received the most kind and appreciative writings by the two most recent clock recipients, Ninaand Allegra.

Indeed Allegra sent to me in the post a most thoughtful gift, a good-journey talisman made with an old piano key, charms of significance and a photograph of me as a young wheeled-home dweller :) All the elements of it are intended to connect us like a knot in a long string to the old gypsy journey tradition and it is to be nailed with a horse nail to the door to bring us luck.

Also in this beautifully wrapped package came a book Tres Deseos (~Three Wishes) illustrated by a recent blog discovery of mine,Gabriel Pacheco ...It is a wonderful earth toned book with very up-my-street illustrations of an old couple squashed into a chimneyed little house. Thank you Allegra for such appreciative words and thoughtful gifts.

Whilst perusing Gabriel Pacheco's work, I found a strange wheeled apple and so thought to theme my latest gallery of inspiring artworks... here I bring you a wonderful wheeled world in both two and three squeaking dimensions.

Gabriel Pacheco is a Spanish illustrator who creates hazy other worlds of strange beings with subtle colours and textures, and was introduced to the arena of children's literature by his sister who asked him to illustrate a story. I can't find out a huge amount about his creations as my Spanish is non-existent, but by the looks of it he employs a very clever mixture of digital and traditional techniques. As far as I can gather these illustrations shown here are from a tale (Calabacina) about a pumpkin.

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Next I wheel on the incredible creations of Akira Blount of Akira Studios. She lives on 70 acres of land in Tennessee raising goats in between making these wonderful dolls with twigs and wheels and delightful characters. Cage dolls form a large part of her work and inside the cages hide other little people and birds and things. Akira's cage dolls often sport wheels and are for me like a strange circus performance and performer combined, and the twigs conjure a foresty-ness that I love.

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Third and fourth I present two Russian artists who both make sculpture and paintings of a strange naive folky sort that make me smile no end, and which are so brilliant I can't quite find the words.Vladimir Gvozdariki makes wooden toys, animations, paintings, drawings and dolls, and here above are some of them that have wheels... how wonderful is the old man inside a wheeled barrel with a chimney and lantern swinging!

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And lastly Boris Ivanov ... whose painted wooden sculptures are like automatons, puppets, and toys all in one.. and whose paintings are exquisitely done naive worlds populated with large, wide people, flying, fishing, playing and dreaming. Boris says of his work:

"Once upon a time - it was about 15 years ago - an idea came to my mind: to create a new World, kind of a new Planet, and populate it with People. So I did. As time passed new personages came to existence. This planet became inhabited by its population of Fatties. Currently there are more than 1.5 thousand of them."

Here below to complete my gallery of wheels is a man driving a wonky beer vehicle, both in paint and in wood. Boris's work creates a world that I find familiar and wonderful and it makes me very happy indeed to look at these works. I suggest you take a good long time to visit his website and peruse the treasures there.

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And for more wheeled creatures I mustn't not mention the beautiful watercolours and felted toys of my talented friend Gretel. Wheels have cropped up rather a lot in my work too of course, which I wrote about a while ago here ... you can also see there where Allegra found that photo of my early days :) My paintings seem to me novice-ish and un-developed next to these great works above, but at the same time their work spurs me on to new levels of excellence.I hope that our days on wheels will bring my work inspiration of a new kind ...

thank you so much for passing on new people and gems to research.i love how the circle continues to grow...you inspire me, they inspire you, and round and round much like a many-spoked wheel...travelling, pushing forward, round and round and round she goes,and where she'll stop?nobody knows!

You dear, dear Rima. I am looking forward to hearing all about the adventures of roaming the land in that magical wheeled box of yours, filled with music and art, and all things that feed the spirit while the body rejoices in the journey. The Fées must be getting their little suitcases ready and just impatiently awaiting to join you both in this wonderful time of your life. I know I would if I could ;)

Thank you so much Rima for pointing us all in the direction of these inspiring artists, I can't wait to go off to explore.Your work is so wonderful and it's such a pleasure to hear of your day and what inspires you too. I visit often and am whisked off to a magical world within your writing, enchanting drawings and paintings. thank you so much!! :))

Rima, how wonderful of you to let us into your world of other inspirational artists. I love their work and have enlarged all the pictures. Favourite of mine are the twiggy creations. I love them and they are exquisitly made.

What wonderful presents you have received too, and how thoughtful of them. Don't forget to nail that gypsy charm to your front door with a horse's nail before you set off.

well, goodness. now you have my own brain wheels turning to see what sort of jewelry i can concoct using wheels! i love the notion, indeed.thinking of you on this partly sunny/partly cloudy november afternoon - love nina

I just re-discovered the art & sculptures by Gvozdariki throughout your Stumble Upon. And I say rediscovered" because I knew of his site for a long time but never got to see the sculptures. They are really amazing! I put him in my top list of beloved artists! Thanks Rima!

Wheels! It was circles that early on had my mind running. When the feeling of the circle becoming a wheel mentally.. things then led to clockwork and the great wheels of time. Never looked back, and followed the rolling wheels for 25 years. May you always dwell in the light of peace.Lostclockmaker.

About Me

Rima Staines is an artist using paint, wood, word, music, animation, clock-making, puppetry & story to attempt to build a gate through the hedge that grows along the boundary between this world & that. Her gate-building has been a lifelong pursuit, & she hopes to have perhaps propped aside even one spiked loop of bramble (leaving a chink just big enough for a mud-kneeling, trusting eye to glimpse the beauty there beyond), before she goes through herself.

Always stubborn about living the things that make her heart sing, Rima lives with her partner Tom and their young son in Hedgespoken - an offgrid home and travelling theatre built on a vintage Bedford RL truck.

Rima’s inspirations include the world & language of folktale; faces of people who pass her on the street; folk music & art of Old Europe & beyond; peasant & nomadic living; magics of every feather; wilderness & plant-lore; the margins of thought, experience, community & spirituality; & the beauty in otherness.

Crumbs fall from Rima’s threadbare coat pockets as she travels, & can be found collected here, where you may join the caravan.